South Stream, Nord Stream to guarantee Russian gas supply Europe - Putin
GAI-KODZOR, Krasnodar Territory. Dec 7 (Interfax) - The South Stream and Nord Stream gas pipeline projects will guarantee Russian gas supplies to the main consumers in Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the ceremony to mark South Stream's first weld.
"Today we're launching one of the biggest infrastructure projects, the construction of a gas transport system along the Black Sea bed. Together with Nord Stream, a similar system along the Baltic Sea bed, South Stream will enable reliable, unconditional deliveries of Russian gas to our main consumers in Europe, in this case southern Europe," Putin said.
South Stream has become an international project, involving many European countries, Putin said.
"Suffice it to say that at the first stage, gas will be supplied to at least six partner countries - Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy and Croatia. Our biggest partners from Western Europe - France, Germany, Italy - are involved in the project," he said.
"The project has political support in all our partner countries. All inter-governmental agreements have been signed and all investment decisions reached," Putin said.
Russia has already started work on its own territory in order to achieve capacity of 63 bcm. "We'll increase and expand our opportunities to reach the Black Sea at a distance of 2,500 km, we'll build 10 compressor stations. Work began back in 2010," Putin said.
"I want to thank all our partners for appreciating the importance of this joint work. We are able to start delivering this large-scale project," he said.
The project will be carried out "to the most modern standards," Putin said. "We've studied the Black Sea water area very carefully and I can assure all those involved that the project will be carried out to the very highest environmental standards," he said.